1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system mounts, and more particularly to an adaptive information handling system rack rail mount.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems are often configured to handle anticipated functions and workloads. As an example, server information handling systems have evolved over time to include availability of an increased density of features and components, especially in mid-range and high-end products. Server information handling systems are often maintained in rack enclosures that vertically stack information handling systems on sliding rails. The height and width of server information handling systems that reside in standard-sized racks are set by the EIA-310-E standard. Typically, information handling systems are designed to have dimensions defined by the number of standardized U that the system has for its height and width. A typical full-size rack has from 42 to 48 U of space for supporting information handling systems and related equipment, such as power supplies and network communications gear.
Although standard sized racks constrain the height and width of server information handling systems, the depth of a rack can vary to allow larger information handling system chassis modules, such as to accommodate additional and/or larger components. If a rack has too great a depth for an information handling system chassis module, such as where a server information handling system is de-featured for a lower-end product offering, the shorter chassis leaves an empty space at the back of the rack when it is slid into the rack interior on its rails. In order to accommodate different chassis and different rack sizes, manufacturers typically have to design rails with different lengths and different connections to the chassis. For example, the rail has to have a length that couples to the front and rear mounting flanges in the rack and either the rail or the chassis has to adjust a coupling point so that the chassis rests at the front of the rack in a closed position with the rails retracted to the rack interior.
Providing different rails for racks and/or information handling systems of different depths can present a substantial logistics problem for information handling system manufacturers and information technology administrators. Although an optimized rail solution may exist for each variation of rack and chassis depth, development and inventory costs for providing multiple rail solutions make this approach inefficient. For example, different types of rails increase the complexity of ordering rails for a given chassis and rack, and increases the risk that an incorrect rail will be delivered to an end user. As another example, deployment and re-deployment of information handling systems to an established data center with existing racks presents increased complexity if installed rails do not work with newly ordered information handling systems. The cost of manufacturing increases if multiple types of rails are produced, as compared with efficiencies available if more rails of a particular type are ordered. In addition, inventory overhead costs are increased with an increased number of rail types that have to be tracked by unique part numbers and maintained in sufficient numbers to timely fill product orders. Instead of providing plural rails types, a manufacturer could design a single rail kit to accommodate the deepest system in a “U” family to make all shorter systems fit by default. However, this penalizes shorter systems by forcing them to use rails that are longer than required and thereby artificially constrains the number and type of racks in which the shorter systems will fit.